Ajit Doval walks out in protest from SCO virtual meeting

National Security Advisor of the government, Ajit Doval on Tuesday walked out in protest from Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) virtual meeting where Islamabad projected a fictitious map showing Indian territories as part of Pakistan.

The SCO currently comprises eight Member States (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), four Observer States interested in acceding to full membership (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia) and six “Dialogue Partners” (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey).

"This was in blatant disregard to the advisory by the host against it and in violation of the norms of the meeting. After consultation with the host, the Indian side left the meeting in protest at that juncture," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

"As was to be expected, Pakistan then went on to present a misleading view of this meeting," said Srivastava, responding to a query on the issue.

Government sources said the Pakistani action was "blatant violation" of the SCO charter and against all its established norms of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of SCO member states.

Government sources were later quoted as saying by news agency ANI that Russia has termed Pakistan’s act as “provocative” while clarifying that Moscow does not support it.

The Russian side, as the chair, not only tried very hard to persuade Pakistan, but it also appreciated the NSA's attendance at the SCO summit. As per sources, Russia made it clear that it does not support Pakistan's provocative act and assured that its National Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev's warm personal relationship with Doval shall not be affected. 

Pakistan on August 4, unveiled its new political map showing the entire Jammu & Kashmir and parts of Gujarat as its territories, drawing the ire of India, which dismissed it as ridiculous assertions that have neither legal validity nor international credibility.

The controversial changes in the map by Pakistan were made a day before the first anniversary of India’s decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019.